


Stones of Mahal

by SOABA



Series: Gifts of the Valar [2]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bilbo Remains In Erebor, Assassination Attempt(s), Dwarves Carved From Stone, Dwobbits, F/M, Families of Choice, Female Bilbo, Fix-It, Khuzdul, M/M, Magic, Overprotective Dwarves, Post-Battle of Five Armies, Rule 63
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-22
Updated: 2014-08-21
Packaged: 2018-02-14 05:12:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2179206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SOABA/pseuds/SOABA
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because if Yavanna Kementári was going to bless the dwarves of Erebor then her husband simply had to as well. Fíli and his wife are having great trouble conceiving a child. Mahal decides to step in to rectify the problem. Warning: Gratuitous use of Khuzdûl. Translations provided at end of the story.</p><p>I’m supposed to be focusing on my other story, ‘Bél of the Blue Mountains’, but the plot bunnies for this refused to stop bouncing around in my head, so here you guys go. I hope that you all enjoy it.</p><p>'Then, around two in the morning, a fearsome boom, followed immediately by a bloodcurdling shriek, rang out in the night, waking everyone in the Royal Halls immediately.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stones of Mahal

**_Part One_ **

 

“I won’t!” Bella heard her eldest daughter cry from inside the nursery, and could easily imagine the stomped foot that had gone with the declaration.

 

For all that Lilli had been a perfectly behaved baby, she had developed a very strong personality at toddlerhood that hadn’t gone away. She was assertive, as stubborn as any in Durin’s line, and _clever_. Very, very clever. She was the ringleader of the triplets and the group that made up their friends, as even Frerin, (for all that he was the seventh coming of Durin the Deathless), had difficulty not bowing to her will, and was not-so-secretly responsible for all kinds of mischief in Erebor. Though she never got blamed for any of it.

 

Knowing that she would be entering into an exhausting battle, Bella steeled herself and entered the nursery from her own room. Nine of her children were already dressed for the day, and seven of those nine were focused on playing with their toys. Rin and Finn, on the other hand, were perched on Finn’s bed, intent on watching the show.

 

“Mummy,” Lilli ordered, pointing at the two dwarrowdam nannies, who had been hired upon their twins, Jórdin and Jöla, sprouting four years earlier, (as Thorin and Bella realized that they were going to need help in managing their little brood of Dwobbits), to assist Bél with dressing the little ones in the mornings, “Tell them that I will not wear that frilly thing!”

 

‘That frilly thing’, was a rather lovely dress, fit for a princess, with layers and layers of pink silk and even pinker lace. It had been a gift from Lord Dáin, and Lilli had hated it instantly. For one thing, pink was a ‘ _girly_ ’ color and Lilli, at just nine years of age, already was bemoaning the fact that she hadn’t been born male and couldn’t wear trousers all of the time like her brothers. For another, it was from _Dáin_ , whom Lilli despised wholeheartedly, the result of a grudge she held against the dwarf because he had called her first attempts at firing a bow ‘so very adorable’ a year earlier.

 

The gown had arrived the week before in a small golden chest and sat upon the petals from at least two dozen tiger lilies, which had all been covered in thin wax and lined with silver to preserve them. Bél had bristled upon seeing the flowers. But, after realizing that Dáin probably had absolutely no idea what the blooms meant, and had likely chosen them because they looked rather striking against the bright pink of the dress, she came to the conclusion that the desire to declare war on Dáin was completely unwarranted.

 

Still, Bella would normally never have tried to get her daughter to wear the little gown, but it was important that she do so today, “Lilli, love, you must wear the dress. Uncle Dáin is coming to visit today, remember? It will make him very happy if you wear the dress that he spent so much time picking out for you.”

 

“I don’t want to make Dáin happy!” Lilli wailed, “I hate him! He’s stupid!”

 

Privately, Bella agreed. Dáin was a greedy dwarrow, whose lust for wealth and power often overruled his good sense. Unfortunately, he was also Thorin’s cousin, which meant that there was no way that they could get out of inviting him to come for what was turning out to be the biggest shindig in the east for hundreds of years.

 

Kíli and Tauriel were getting married in two weeks’ time. _Finally_. And since the union consisted of a Prince of Erebor and the only niece of the Elvenking, the preparations that had been made were almost indecently over the top. The happy couple must have agreed, because Dís had already been forced to drag them back to the mountain twice when they tried to run off and elope.

 

And all of this meant that Dáin was coming for a visit. This, in turn, meant that Lilli had to wear the dress that Dáin had sent for her. It was the perfect way to help smooth away the growing tensions between the lord and Thorin, tensions that had been caused because Thorin had refused to betroth Lilli to Dáin’s youngest son, who was a year older than Kíli, when Dáin had suggested it.

 

Of course, this plan would only work if they could actually get Lilli into the damn gown. At the moment, this didn’t seem very likely to occur.

 

Lilli had started holding her breath.

 

It was a tactic Lilli often used to get her way. And most of the time it worked. Thorin or Bél’s brothers would take one look at Lilli’s purpling cheeks and would give her whatever she wanted. It irritated Bella to no end, as she was the only person in the entire kingdom who couldn’t be tricked into conceding to her willful child.

 

“You may hold your breath all you like, Mizim,” Bella said, garnering a look of reproach from the nannies, “And when you pass out from lack of air, I shall simply put you in the dress before you can wake back up.”

 

“Your Majesty!” Gruta cried in alarm as Lilli’s face darkened.

 

Gruta and the other silver-haired dwarrowdam, Hazel, were the aforementioned nannies. While Bél recognized how much of a help they were in the mornings, because trying to dress ten children on her own was a nightmare unlike any other, she would have preferred not to have their help most of the time. It was traditional, of course, but Bella had made Thorin promise when she finally agreed to hire the two women that they would only be around to help with the morning routine. Her children were not going to raised by nannies, thank you very much.

 

She’s quickly became grateful for extracting such a promise, as the dwarrowdams had their own views on how royal children should be raised, ones that clashed heavily with Bella’s. Most days, she was quite pleased to dismiss them once her little ones were ready to face the day.

 

“She is wearing the dress,” Bella told them coolly, “It’s only for the day, and then she may burn it in the Great Forges should she wish.”

 

Lilli inhaled sharply, “Really? Gabil Khubûb?”

 

“Really,” Bél promised, “But you must wear until after dinner. It will make your Uncle Dáin happy.”

 

Lilli scrunched up her nose and repeated, “Dáin is stupid.”

 

Bella sighed, “Just put on the dress.”

 

“Amad?” Frerin spoke up, “Can Finn and me burn the clothes we don’t like too?”

 

“Yeah!” Finn exclaimed, “Like those ugly robes the Steward sent us from Gondor last year!”

 

“We’ll see.”

_**(*)**_

 

A few minutes later, Bella, after leaving her children with their nannies and Kíli, found herself talking to Dori and her sister-in-law, Lunís, about what types of fabric ought to be purchased to craft blankets and coats for the poor in the kingdom.

 

Lunís had made her entrance into the family in a rather dramatic fashion six years earlier. Having shirked his duties in order to go ice-skating, Fíli had gone through some thin ice and had plunged into the icy water underneath, hitting his head on the way down. Lunís, having just arrived from Ered Luin, had unhesitatingly dived in after him, and had saved his life in front of over a hundred dwarrows. At the time, she’d had no idea that she had rescued the future King of Erebor, having never seen Fíli before.

 

Fíli had returned to consciousness while cradled in her arms and had been quite sure for some time that he was seeing an angel. An angel with honey-colored eyes and blonde hair, something he had never seen on any other full-blooded dwarf but himself and on his deceased uncle in the few paintings that existed of Frerin I.

 

Fíli had married Lunís a month later.

 

The Royal Family had welcomed her with open arms, not only because she saved Fíli but because of her genuinely goodhearted nature. She was kind to everyone and had right away thrown herself into helping out with the numerous charities in the kingdom, despite having very little herself. Even now that she had every luxury she could possibly wish for, she worked hard to help everyone that she could.

 

Everyone had celebrated the marriage, and even those on the Lower Council, who liked huffing about everything, were grateful that Fíli had at least married one of his own kind. They had lived in fear that he would choose another Elf or Hobbit or even a Daughter of Man to be his bride.

The whispers could not be quelled forever, though. After six years, Lunís had still not birthed a child for Fíli and people wanted to know why.

 

The family shielded Lunís from the rumors as best as they could, but they were aware that she still heard plenty of them. More than enough to reduce her to tears on multiple occasions. Finally, Fíli had stood up in front of the Councils and lied through his teeth to get certain Lords and Ladies to shut up. He told them that they weren’t trying to have a child yet, after all, he already had an heir in Frerin, and that they wanted to enjoy their youth.

 

The lie had worked, but Fíli and Lunís’ sadness at being childless did not die away as the rumors had.

 

To keep her son and daughter-in-law from falling apart, Dís had advised them to _really_ stop trying. It would happen if it was destined to, but their desperately trying and failing to create a baby over and over would only destroy them. With heavy hearts, the pair had accepted this. In the three months since then, Bella had been gratified to see Fíli and Lunís smiling more and more.

 

“Oh my,” Lunís suddenly spoke with wide eyes, causing Bella and Dori to turn around in order to see what had caught their sister-in-law’s gaze. What they saw made them gape in shock.

 

Kíli was dragging what seemed to be Bella’s eldest daughter toward them. Only it wasn’t her child as Bella had left her, just ten minutes earlier, with hair perfectly braided and looking like a jewel, albeit a rather grumpy jewel, in her new gown.

 

 _This_ Lilli was covered head to toe in thick, black mud that dripped off her in large smelly globs. Her braids were dirtied and in total disarray. But the worst thing was that the lovely pink dress Dáin had sent was utterly, irrevocably destroyed. And she looked very proud about it too.

 

“Trystalilli Baggins-Oakenshield!” Bél exclaimed, “What have you done?!”

 

“I slipped, mummy,” Lilli said in a much too innocent voice, “In the Crystal Caverns when I went to go get some mushrooms. It was an accident.”

 

“You weren’t supposed to be anywhere near the Crystal Caverns, Lilli!” Bella buried her head in her hands.

 

“Sorry, Bél,” Kíli apologized, “The little scamp wiggled right out of my grip.”

 

“I’m a princess,” Lilli said impertinently, “You can’t call me a scamp.”

 

“As long as you’re covered in mud, I most certainly can,” Kíli argued.

 

“Don’t you worry, Bella,” Dori soothed, “I anticipated that an _accident_ like this might occur. You go get the princess cleaned up and then I’ll meet you in your chambers. I had an identical dress made up for just this type of situation.”

 

Bella looked at him in relief and immense gratitude, Lilli gave him a look of abject horror.

 

**(*)**

 

An hour later, Bella stood beside Thorin at the Gates, baby Lilacina in her arms, and a freshly scrubbed Lilli standing next to her, stubbornly sulking in her _new_ pink dress. Like Dori has promised, it was identical in every way to the first.

 

The rest of her children were either in the arms of a member of the Company or, in Rin and Finn’s cases, standing next to Thorin. All of them were dressed in their very finest clothing and the two eldest boys even had silver cloaks attached to their shoulders to match their father and older cousins. They all wore either crowns or diadems upon their heads, save for Lila, who had on a jeweled headband, and had gems and beads of precious metal woven into their hair.

 

None of them looked particularly pleased, but at least no one had thrown a tantrum yet.

 

“Why can’t it be Uncle Elrond visiting?” Lilli tugged on Bél’s own silvery gown, “I like _him_.”

 

Thorin sighed almost inaudibly and Bella had to fight back a laugh. Their children’s love of elves, even of Thranduil, drove him bonkers at times. Her husband would have loved to place the blame on Bella for this, but she had infuriatingly reminded him that Kíli had fallen in love with Tauriel all on his own and so Thorin’s blood was as much to blame as her own.

 

“He’ll be here in a week, darling,” Bella reminded, “He’s coming with his children, Glorfindel, and Gandalf.”

 

Lilli brightened at that, “Will there be fireworks?”

 

“Gandalf would hardly pass up a chance to light up his whiz poppers, katagilemul habanuh,” Thorin answered.

 

Lilli beamed at him.

 

Finally the trumpets sounded, signaling Dáin’s arrival in Erebor.

 

He came with far more fanfare than was necessary, sitting atop a huge black horse that had a saddle, reins, and stirrups made of solid gold. Bella felt terribly sorry for the poor thing; because Dáin was no lightweight himself and having to carry all of that heavy metal on top of the dwarf lord’s weight must have been exhausting.

 

But that was Dáin for you. If he could have found an Oliphaunt to tame, he probably would have fashioned golden armor for the beast and ridden through Erebor’s gates on it.

 

Dáin was wearing the colors of the Iron Hills: blue, to symbolize the connection that those in the Iron Hills had to Durinsfolk, and dark red, to denote that which gave the Iron Hills its name, the iron ore that the region was so very rich with. His fancy clothes and blue cloak were lined with golden braid and around his large waist was a thick golden belt set with sapphires and rubies. He had far too many rings on his fingers and an overabundance of glittering beads braided into his hair and beard.

 

He looked ridiculous really, and Bella was forced to shoot Rin and Finn a loaded look to quell their quiet snickers. Behind her, Dís was doing the same with Fíli and Kíli.

 

The dwarrow was grinning widely at them and his smile became impossibly bigger when he saw Lilli in her pink dress. Bella breathed out a very quiet sigh of relief, Dáin hadn’t noticed that Lilli’s dress wasn’t the one he originally sent. She was going to bake Dori an entire chest full of his favorite maple cookies and approve all of his requests for exotic fabrics for the next month.

 

“Hail,” Dáin called out, dismounting from his horse and bowing deeply, “His Majesty, Thorin, son of Thrain, Son of Thrór, King Under the Mountain and Lord of Silver Fountains.”

 

“Well met, honorable cousin, Dáin, son of Fáin, son of Grór, Lord of the Iron Hills,” Thorin replied with a respectful nod.

 

“Greetings to Your Majesty, Queen Bél, daughter of Bungo, son of Mungo, Lady of Silver Fountains,” Dáin continued, bowing to Bella, not as deeply but with more flourish.

 

“We welcome you to Erebor, most admirable Lord Dáin,” Bella said, feeling as if she was reading from a stuffy script, which admittedly she was.

 

There was strict protocol in greeting visiting nobility and royalty, at least when the visitors were dwarves. Thorin and Thranduil _never_ spoke so respectfully to one another and Lord Elrond’s greetings were far more warm than these, while those of his three children and Glorfindel consisted of immediately hugging everyone. Young Arwen did it because of her warm personality, Estel did it because Arwen did, and Elladan, Elrohir, and Glorfindel did it because they found the reactions of the dwarves amusing. The dwarves tolerated it because they found little elves to be much more amiable than adult elves.

 

Bella tactfully did not mention that Glorfindel was probably at least as old as Thranduil.

 

After Dáin had finished greeting all of the others, he turned his attention back to Bella, or more accurately to the baby nestled in Bella’s arms, “This must be Erebor’s newest little princess. She’s beautiful.”

 

“Her name is Lilacina,” Thorin said proudly, “And, yes, she is our youngest little gem.”

 

“Have you given any more consideration to my offer, cousin?” Dáin asked.

 

“We shall talk of such things while standing here at the Mekhêmel,” Thorin said firmly. “Any discussion of propositions can wait until after we feast this evening in honor of your arrival.”

 

**(*)**

 

“Uncle Dáin looked like an overdressed pig, momma,” Finn told her later that afternoon once he, his siblings and their friends were ensconced within Bella’s chambers with her.

 

“And I’m very proud that none of you pointed such a thing out in front of him,” Bella replied.

 

“Does that mean we get extra desserts tonight?” Finn asked excitedly.

 

“Yes, it does,” Bella promised, causing the children to all cheer.

 

Bella was quite used to being the one responsible for keeping an eye on her children and their friends when they weren’t in lessons. As Queen, her duties were nowhere near as numerous as Thorin’s, or any of the others for that matter. Since her Khuzdûl lessons with Balin had ended years ago and her assistance in translating Greentongue to Westron had long been unnecessary, (because Ori and his Scribes were more than capable of doing it themselves now and all of the known texts in Greentongue were already fully translated anyway), Bella had been left with much free time on her hands.

 

She helped here and there, as much as she could, but besides providing her voice in the Council Sessions on Mersdays, being responsible for handling Nori’s reports, and making the final decisions about menus for feasts and what type of fabrics Dori could order from other places, Bella had little to occupy her time besides looking after her children.

 

She had been disgruntled about what she had, at first, perceived to be a lack of faith in her abilities, but Dís had explained that the duties she _did_ have were traditional for the Queen of Erebor. It had helped for Bél to know that no one believed she couldn’t handle the responsibilities expected of the King’s wife simply because she was a Hobbit and not a dwarrowdam.

 

Dís had gone on to explain that things had been set up in this way because the main job of the Queen was to raise little dwarflings, although, unlike Bél, they usually had the full-time help of a few nannies. The fact that Bella was also in charge of Nori and his Shadow Shields, (partly because Nori, for all his talent and loyalty, was quite capable of irritating the hell out of Thorin on a good day), the Kingdom’s very important spy network, was a testament to Thorin’s faith in her.

 

After receiving that clarification, Bella had been more than happy to spend most of her time with her fauntlings and their friends, all of whom were kin anyway, the children of her brothers. There were daycares set up in Erebor, of course, where her brothers could have sent their children to stay when lessons ended, but the idea of trusting their little ones to strangers wasn’t very appealing.

 

“Amad?” Frerin asked, widening his light green eyes, “May we go play in the hot pools?”

 

The ‘hot pools’, more commonly known as Ruby Springs, was a set of lovely hot springs that Bofur had discovered a year earlier and named such because the walls were set with hundreds of rubies. This had come as a major surprise because the springs were nowhere any of the gem mines. Thorin had cordoned off the pools as a place where the Royal Family, and their distinguished guests and friends, could go swimming. The rubies embedded in the walls were not to be disturbed.

 

Bella hadn’t been all too impressed with the idea, as she was a Hobbit and Hobbits didn’t enjoy swimming as a general rule, until it came out that her children absolutely loved the ‘hot pools’ as they had christened them. She didn’t understand why, as there was little difference in swimming in the herb-rich water and them taking a nice warm bath with soap in the Royal Halls, but she was determined to make the most of the development before they cottoned on to what she was doing.

 

As a result, she took them down to the Springs almost every eve before dinner time to splash around and get clean. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an option today, because getting them all redressed in their best clothes if they stripped them off to go swimming would have been more than she could handle by herself.

 

“You may play with your toys in the sitting room,” Bella told the group of children, “But you may not leave these chambers today. I promise to take you all to have an extra long swim tomorrow though. Lilli, you may sit quietly and read a book. You’re still on restriction from your toys due to the stunt you pulled this morning.”

 

“That’s not fair, mummy!”

 

Bella shot her a firm look. Lilli pouted deeply, but went to grab her favorite book of fairy tales and sat down on a plush armchair without any further argument.

 

Because Bella didn’t trust Lilli not to jump into the sooty fireplace, she grabbed a book of her own and sat in a chair beside her daughter, with Lila cradled in the crook of her left arm, to simultaneously read and keep an eye on her children and their friends. After a few minutes reading, she looked up to check on them.

 

The older ones, Rin, Finn, Brína, Danur, Garnur, Gwila, and Mürsen, (Bella and Thorin’s fourth child), were play-acting the Battle of the Five Armies with their little silver, gold, and jeweled toy soldiers and their intricately carved and painted wooden monsters. Lilli had apparently given up on reading her fairy stories and was instructing them from her seat about how things were meant to go.

 

Brína, Danur, and Garnur were Bombur’s eldest children of out of his seven, all born one right after another. It had amazed many, how easily his wife, Rína, became pregnant and had children. She was pregnant with their eighth child now and was hoping that this newest babe would have her light brown hair, since all of the others, (Brína, Danur, Garnur, Trína, Runur, Ronur, and Drína), shared their father’s bright red locks.

 

Gwilwilethel, or Gwila, was the adopted elven daughter of Gimli and Legolas. And hadn’t _that_ revelation been an event to remember. The happy couple had unexpectedly returned after five years of exploring, in which no one had heard a peep from them, with a four-year old little sprite standing between them. Gala and Glóin had been furious that Gimli hadn’t thought to mention anything about this development, and that was nothing compared to the pouting Thranduil did, but all three were soon charmed within an inch of their lives by the platinum haired, blue-eyed wisp.

 

“No, Dan, mummy killed Bolg because daddy, Fee, and Kee were sitting on their bums,” Lilli said. “That’s what Uncle Nori said, ‘member?”

 

“Oh, yeah,” Dan agreed.

 

Bella shook her head in amusement. Nori needed to learn to keep his mouth shut around little ears. Although there was a chance he had said it deliberately just to get Thorin’s goat. Irritating the King Under the Mountain was one of the spymaster’s favorite pastimes, right under spending _quality_ time with Bofur and messing with Dwalin’s head.

 

The middle bunch of children, Meradís, (Bella and Thorin’s fifth child), Jórdin, Jöla, Trína, Runur, and Ronur were building a fortress on the giant dinning table out of building blocks that were each one worth a fortune, laden with gold, silver, gems, and even mithril as they were. Bél was quite impressed at how sturdy it seemed to be.

 

Thrainin, Drína, Dávi, and Nísi were drawing on thick parchment with large pieces of wax that came in a rainbow of colors. The big chunks were the perfect size for the little hands to keep a hold of and had the added benefit of being _mostly_ safe around clothes. There had been one incident a few years earlier where Finn had left a dark blue wax in the pocket of his white jacket and had turned it, and all of the other white articles of clothing in that particular wash, a bright sapphire color.

 

Dávi and Nísi were the adopted children of Dwalin and Ori. Ori had been sent on a diplomatic mission with Balin to the Blue Mountains a year earlier and had returned with two year old Dávi and his ten month old sister Nísi, whose parents had been murdered by Orcs. Ori had sent one pleading look in Dwalin’s direction and the mighty warrior caved. Balin and Dori were tickled pink by the development.

 

Loridoc, Bella and Thorin’s youngest and painfully shy son, was the only one playing by himself, at Bél’s feet, his attention solely on his two plush dragons, one blue and golden in color and the other purple and silver. Oh the arguments those two toys had caused!

 

Thorin had not been impressed that his son’s favorite playthings were stuffed dragons, no matter that they looked absolutely nothing like Smaug. He had also been decidedly unhappy with Bél for purchasing the toys for Lory when the infant saw them in Dale and turned his big emerald colored eyes on her. Thorin had tried everything he could think of to get Lory to turn his favor on something else. The Toymakers’ Guild had never had as many orders in a month as they did that week.

 

Bofur and Bifur, Erebor’s greatest toymakers, had, to Thorin’s irritation, refused to get involved. They had been firm in their belief that favorite toys are sacred and shouldn’t be challenged as it could be damaging to the child. Thorin had shouted at them, but had sheepishly apologized a week later when Lory would no longer acknowledge his daddy’s presence because Thorin had been dumb enough to try hiding the beloved dragons from the little boy.

 

Bella was definitely _not_ under the influence of Blightroot when she kicked him out of the mountain that night.

 

To make it up to Lory, Thorin had crafted for him a dozen little golden dragons, each with eyes made of a different set of gemstones. Lory had been delighted and Thorin was too grateful that he was forgiven to mind about the velvet and silk drakes that Lory dragged everywhere.

 

Seeing that all of the children were quite content in what they were doing, Bella returned to her book. A few minutes later, the doors to the Sitting Room slammed open, making everybody jump, slammed back closed, and a desperate Kíli dove behind one of Bella’s red velvet couches.

 

Bella stood and handed a groggy Lila, who had been woken from her neck by her cousin’s loud actions, to Lilli, “Watch your sister for a minute.”

 

“Okay,” Lilli said in delight, because everyone knew that playing with babies was more interesting than playing with toys.

 

Bella leaned over the couch and demanded, “What are you doing, Kíli?”

 

“I can’t take it anymore!” Kíli cried, “If I have to look at another place setting or sample any more lemon cake, I’m going to lose it! There is absolutely no difference between the cream and ivory colored napkins, no matter what Amad says, and each of the thirty cakes tasted exactly the same!”

 

“Where is Tauriel?” Bella asked, cutting off Kíli’s rant, which was sure to continue for an hour if she didn’t stop it now.

 

“Dress fitting,” Kíli muttered, “Amad and Fee are keeping her away from me so that we can’t escape this insanity.”

 

Jö tottered over to pat his cheek, “It’ll be okay, Kee Kee,” she said sweetly.

 

Kíli caught her tiny hand and kissed it gently, making her giggle.

 

“Your beard tickles, Kee Kee,” Jö laughed.

 

“Sorry, little cousin,” Kíli grinned, a tad bit happier at that comment.

 

After many, _many_ years of waiting, Kíli’s beard had finally started to come in two summers earlier. It was nowhere near as long as Thorin’s or his brother’s, because Kíli was still very much an archer and a long beard would have easily tangled with his bow, but he was still immensely proud of it.

 

“This is the first place that Dís is going to come looking for you, you know,” Bella reminded.

 

“Why do you think I’m _behind_ the couch, namadith?” Kíli countered.

 

“You’re mother is no simpleton, nadaduh,” Bella told him, “She knows well enough to look behind the couches.”

 

Kíli deflated and shot her a pleading gaze.

 

“However,” Bella sighed, “It is highly unlikely that she would check in the bathroom.”

 

“What am I supposed to do in there?” Kíli inquired.

 

“Take a bath,” Bella instructed, “You smell like someone doused you in lemon juice.”

 

“A _bath_!” Kíli wrinkled his nose in disgust.

 

“Sometimes I wonder who the younger sibling actually is in this relationship,” Bella quipped, “It’s either a bath or you can go back to staring at napkins in different shades of off-white.”

 

Kíli bolted into her bedroom and into the luxurious bathroom within. A moment later he called out, “Bél, all of your soaps smell like _flowers_!”

 

**(*)**

 

Thirty minutes later, Tauriel slipped into the bathroom and smirked at the sight of Kíli sitting in the overlarge bathtub covered in bubbles.

 

“Bubbles are fun,” he immediately defended, “How did you escape?”

 

“I’m an elf, Nûlukhuh,” she replied blithely, removing her tunic and then her leggings off with ease, before entering the warm water, “There are few who are capable of keeping me.”

 

Kíli immediately pulled her close, “Does that make me special then, Gimiluh?”

 

“Very special,” Tauriel confirmed, “Zu Nûlukhul Furkhuhaz.”

 

“Zâyung zu,” Kíli proclaimed before kissing her deeply.

 

“You two had better not be doing anything that should be saved for the honeymoon!” Fíli’s voice, coming from the other side of the bathroom door, startled the pair greatly a minute later.

 

“Go away, Fee!”

 

Fíli’s loud laughter filtered through to them, but got quieter as he presumably got further away.

 

Kíli looked at Tauriel, whose cheeks were slightly pink, “You are so cute when you blush.”

 

Tauriel splashed him.

 

**(*)**

 

True to Thorin’s word, it wasn’t until the feast had come to an end that he agreed to meet with Dáin to discuss matters that the Lord deemed important. He had tried to get Thorin to speak to him alone, but Thorin refused to discuss anything without Bella being present. In the face of his cousin’s stubbornness, Dáin had been forced to concede.

 

“What are _they_ doing here?” Dáin questioned unhappily when he saw Sóir and Han walk in a few steps behind Bella.

 

“They’re my guards,” Bella told him. This wasn’t a lie. They technically _were_ assigned to protect her, but she quite often dismissed them, preferring to go places on her own. Thorin oft called her annoyingly independent because of this habit, “They’re supposed to be here.”

 

Dáin looked worried for just a moment before it faded away.

 

“Why have you called this meeting, Dáin?” Thorin asked.

 

“There are problems plaguing the Iron Hills,” Dáin said bluntly, “Lately there has been much unrest among the populace. More and more often are my orders questioned. I have had to order more executions in the past four months than in ten years. Something must be done quickly, something forceful enough to quiet the people.”

 

Thorin and Bella shared a brief and extremely concerned look.

 

“And what is it that would you like us to do?” Bella questioned carefully, “We have no authority over the dwarves in the Iron Hills, Dáin. They aren’t citizens of Erebor.”

 

Dáin got a gleam in his eyes that sent chills down Bél’s spine, because she easily recognized it for what it truly was, “I want you to sign a written agreement promising Trystalilli to my son, Káinrin, when she comes of age. I want you to put a stop to this ridiculous farce of a wedding and order Kíli to marry my daughter, María. And finally, I want you to name me King of the Iron Hills. These things will surely cement my authority.”

 

“And why in the blazes would I agree to _any_ of that?” Thorin snapped at his cousin in warning. Dáin had gone beyond just bordering on insolence, well beyond, “I have already told you that those in my family shall marry for love and nothing else. And one king cannot crown another.”

 

“Because if you don’t,” Dáin threatened with the air of someone who knew he had the upper hand, “Then your eldest daughter will die.”

 

Anger instantly bloomed in Bella’s heart and Thorin wasted no time rising in fury, “You would dare to-”

 

“That lovely little dress she is wearing, the one I sent ahead a week ago, I knew that you would make her wear it today,” Dáin smirked, “To _appease_ me. It’s been touching her skin long enough for the extensive amount of poison that I laced it with to have seeped into her tiny body. I’m sure you’ve heard of the somewhat elusive poison Fairest Night, pink in color and smells like tiger lilies? I have the only antidote in a thousand miles, which you shall only get if you concede to my demands.”

 

Thorin had gone ashen.

 

“Arrest him,” Bella ordered Sóir and Han, “Now!”

 

“Do that and your precious Lilli will surely die,” Dáin snarled, forcing the guards to halt.

 

“If you think I shall not make you make dearly for this, Dáin-”

 

“I said, _arrest him_ ,” Bella commanded again.

 

“But my lady,” Han protested, “The Princess-”

 

“Trystalilli is fine!” Bél snapped, “She barely wore the original dress for ten minutes before she ruined it by diving headfirst into black mud. She’s been wearing a backup that Dori made all day and evening. There was nowhere near enough time for any poison to made its way past her skin, especially not since I had to give her a thorough scrubbing down to get her clean again. I never thought I’d be so grateful for my daughter disobeying me.”

 

Dáin blanched at Bella’s revelation, “You’re lying.”

 

“I most certainly am not,” Bella spat out, “Choosing someone as obstinate as Lilli to be your target was a major tactical error.”

 

“Escort him to the deepest, darkest, rankest dungeon cell we have,” Thorin instructed, a bit of relief coloring his words, “I shall deal with him and his treachery later.”

 

Sóir and Han grasped hold of Dáin immediately and happily drug him from the room, taking care to bang his head on the stone doors on the way out.

 

For his part, Dáin was remarkably quiet, a look of shock seemingly stuck on his face, as if he could not conceive of the fact that his brilliant plan had failed.

 

The moment his cousin was out of sight, Thorin sunk to his knees and slumped forward. Bella rushed to him and pulled him close to her, so that his head was propped up against the crook of her neck.

 

“How could he _do_ this?” Thorin inquired desperately after a minute, looking up at her.

 

“Because he’s greedy,” Bella answered, “Greedy and…”

 

“And?”

 

“I recognized the look in his eyes when he walked into this room,” Bella admitted, “He’s hiding it from his people, not well if there has been as much unrest as he claimed, but he’s clearly gold mad, Thorin.”

 

“You mean,” Thorin said slowly, “That I looked as deranged as he did just now?”

 

“Well… maybe not _as_ deranged. But it wasn’t pretty, Thorin. You knew that.”

 

“I knew what I did,” Thorin replied softly, “I didn’t know how I looked. You must have been terrified.”

 

“I was far more angry than I was scared, Khaeluh,” Bella assured, stroking a hand through his dark hair, “And that anger has long since passed.”

 

Thorin lowered his head again and inhaled deeply, as if memorizing her scent.

 

“I’m buying Lilli a pony,” Thorin said, his voice slightly muffled by Bél’s shoulder, “For being such a clever little girl. She’s been asking for one for months.”

 

“I don’t think her intelligence had anything to do with not being poisoned,” Bella told him with a raised brow, “I think we have her tenacity to thank.”

 

Thorin just shrugged, “Nevertheless.”

 

**(*)**

 

“Can we stay the night with Auntie Dís?” Finn begged, “Please, please, please?”

 

“I don’t mind,” Dís told them, probably sensing that Bella and Thorin needed some time alone to de-stress. As much as Bella would have loved to lock her children in the nursery and coddle them all night long, she realized that Dís was probably on to something. If she started overprotecting them, it would be incredibly difficult to stop.

 

Dís, (and the entire Company, of course, because Nori had been listening in on the meeting with Dáin and had told Bofur, and Bofur, who was terrible at keeping secrets, had told everybody else), had found out about Dáin’s betrayal almost immediately. To say they were angry would have been a massive understatement. Thorin had over a dozen volunteers to help him ‘sort out Dáin’ once morning came. For obvious reasons, Dwalin and Nori were the only ones permitted to accompany him.

 

Óin had insisted that Lilli get another scrub down just in case, something that the girl had vehemently protested until Thorin had promised to take her to Dale in order to pick out a pony the very next afternoon. Rin and Finn had taken offense to this and so, while Bella was bathing Lilli, the King had promised to buy the two of them ponies too.

 

The Company, who were all shaken up at the thought that they had nearly lost something so precious, had ended up making all kinds of ridiculous promises too. Bella had no idea where Kíli thought he was going to get enough obsidian to craft an entire playhouse for the children to play in, or where he was going to put it for that matter, but it would be interesting to see.

 

“Thank you, Dís,” Thorin said, before turning to his expectant children, “Be good for your aunt.”

 

There was much cheering and for a little while Bella managed to forget the danger that Lilli could have easily fallen prey to. But then everybody filtered out to go to their respective rooms, Thorin went to go take a bath of his own, and Bella entered the nursery.

 

It was there that she caught sight of the golden chest that had housed the original cursed dress, still cracked open on Lilli’s bed and filled with those damned petals. Filled with a sudden, hot burst of anger, Bella scooped the petals out, marched over to the low fire in her Sitting Room, and threw them in. It took a bit of time, but the wax melted off, dripping into the soot below, and the flowers crumbled into ash, leaving only the silver frames behind.

 

Using the fire tongs, Bella pulled them out, one by one, and then dropped each of them back into the chest. She lifted the chest up and carried it out into the hallway where she ran into Bifur, heading from Bombur’s rooms to his own.

 

“Where are you going, sister?” he asked in thick Khuzdûl as he took in the gold chest and the dogged determination on her face.

 

“The Great Forges,” Bella answered.

 

“Gabil Khubûb?” Bifur grumbled out, _“_ Kyf?”

 

“To melt this chest and the things inside it down,” Bél said simply. “Lomil Ghelekh, Nadad.”

 

**(*)**

 

After depositing the chest and silver lining with the guards watching over the closed forges, because the Queen most certainly could not risk her life by climbing around the heavy, dangerous equipment, Bél returned to her husband’s room.

 

“Were you walking around Erebor in your nightgown?” Thorin asked amused from where he leaning against the headboard.

 

“I certainly didn’t mean to,” Bella admitted as she crawled in next to him, “But yes.”

 

“What was so important that it couldn’t wait until morning?”

 

“I had to get that damn chest from Dáin out of the nursery,” Bél told him, watching his face darken in anger at the reminder of his cousin’s treachery, “I took it to the forges and left it with the guard so that it can be melted down tomorrow morning once the day shift starts. I tried to do it myself, but the guards wouldn’t let me.”

 

“Good for them, I’ll have to give them raises.”

 

Bella glared at him, “It’s not like I haven’t crawled all over that stuff before.”

 

“There was a dragon chasing us at the time,” Thorin pointed out, “And you also were wearing trousers then.”

 

Bella’s retort was cut off by Thorin pressing a passionate kiss to her lips.

 

**(*)**

 

After a long period of not sleeping, Thorin and Bella drifted off into a deep slumber, quite exhausted from their love making.

 

For a time, all was peaceful in Erebor. As long as you didn’t count Dáin, who had gotten over his shock at his oh so great plan failing and was now very angry indeed at being locked up and was currently yelling up a storm in the dungeons, of course.

 

Then, around two in the morning, a fearsome boom, followed immediately by a bloodcurdling shriek, rang out in the night, waking everyone in the Royal Halls immediately.

 

**(*)**

 

_Here is the list Thorin and Bella’s Dwobbits_

  *          _Frerin (Rin)_ \- Age 9
  *          _Finnian (Finn)_ \- Age 9
  *          _Trystalilli (Lilli)_ \- Age 9
  *          _Mürsen (Mür)_ \- Age 7
  *          _Meradís (Mera)_ \- Age 6
  *          _Jórdin (Din)_ \- Age 4
  *          _Jöla (Jö)_ \- Age 4
  *          _Thrainin (Thray)_ \- Age 3
  *          _Loridoc (Lory)_ \- Age 2
  *          _Lilacina (Lila)_ \- Age 6 Months



 

_Khuzdûl Translations_

  *          _Mizim_ \- Jewel
  * _Gabil Khubûb_ _-_ The Great Forges
  *          _Mekhêmel_ \- The Great Gates
  *          _Namadith_ \- Little Sister
  * _Nûlukhuh_ \- My Moon
  *          _Gimiluh_ \- My Stars
  * _Zu _Nûlukhul Furkhuhaz__ _-_ You Are the Moon of My Life
  *          _Zâyung Zu_ \- I Love You
  * _Katagilemul Habanuh_ \- My Sparkling Gem
  * _Khaeluh_ \- My Wolf
  *          _Kyf?_ \- Why?
  * _Lomil Ghelekh_ _-_ Good Night
  *          _Nadad_ _-_ Brother



**Author's Note:**

> I based what Lilli does to the dress on something one of my cousins did when we were much younger. All seven of us girls were wearing these beautiful green velvet gowns to go see ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in Orlando, because my mother and my aunts loved to make us wear matching outfits, and Skye threw a fit. The moment my aunt wasn’t looking, Skye marched herself outside and jumped into a muddy puddle. Unfortunately, my aunt didn’t have a Dori to fix the situation for her. As the eldest cousin, I was properly horrified at the time, but now I can’t think of the incident without laughing.
> 
> Yes, the Dwobbits legally have their parents’ last names. Even though dwarrows don’t typically use them, it is a Shire tradition that Thorin insisted upon utilizing to honor Bél. Tiger Lilies mean hatred and disdain in flower language. Foreshadowing, :).
> 
> I’m changing how old Elrond’s children are. It’s fanfiction, so I can do that, :). Gwilwilethel means butterfly in elfish.
> 
> Also, I really do not like Dáin, at all. It always really bugged me that Thorin did all the work reclaiming Erebor and then Dáin got to rule it despite Dís still being alive. And yeah, I know that women weren’t supposed to rule, but I think Dís would have made a kick-ass Queen. Please Review Guys!


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